Elimination from the Champions League is not just a sporting wound. For Inter, the premature exit from top-level European competition also has a significant economic impact.
In recent weeks, Inter was playing not only for international prestige, but also for a fundamental share of its own economic sustainability. The results on the field extinguished the European dream, and with it a series of revenues that the club had budgeted at the start of the season.
The first figure is the most immediate: by failing to reach the round of 16, Inter loses 11 million euros guaranteed by UEFA for reaching the knockout stage. A certain amount, already written into the club’s projected accounts, which is now completely erased.
But the damage does not end there. Elimination from the Champions also means no big European nights at San Siro, and therefore no ticket sales. The estimate is about 9 million euros on average that would have come from the home matches of the knockout stage: tickets, hospitality, corporate events.
All in all, Inter’s exit from the Champions costs the club about 20 million euros in total.
“Even if we were to go out, we would make up for it in the balance sheet as we go. It is absolutely not a problem.” These were the words of President Giuseppe Marotta before the Inter-Bodo Glimt match.
